Iddon hails positive weekend after climbing up the standings at Brands Hatch

Mike Petch

A solid points haul for Christian Iddon saw the TYCO BMW rider climb five places, to sixth, in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings at Brands Hatch, over the weekend.

Iddon, from Hayfield, went well all weekend, running as high as P2 in free practice, around the Kent circuit’s ultra-competitive ‘Indy’ layout, where the top 20 riders or more can set times within a second of one-another.

A disappointing qualifying session left the former Supermoto champion on the back foot, but Iddon started brilliantly, climbing five places, to fifth, where he would settle until the chequered flag fell.

With a more positive grid slot [5th] for race two, Christian started on the front, climbing to third place, before the red-flags flew, with rain starting to settle on the track. Frantic pit action took place to get bikes back out for the restart, but with worsening conditions, and a bike not set up for the wet, Iddon couldn’t get the flow he wanted from the bike, eventually bringing his BMW S1000RR home in a masterful sixth place, in awful conditions.

“No trophies, but I think it’s been a positive weekend,” said Iddon, “I’ve been strong all weekend, we were up there in pretty much every session.

“I didn’t qualify where I wanted to, but all the times are that close round here, in all the free practice I was the right side of the times, I was up the front, just in qualifying I was just the wrong side of it, leaving me tenth, which is fourth row. That made race one quite difficult.

“It was a really strong and really positive first race, the bike felt good and I got up to fifth quite well, then I relaxed in to the mid part of the race.

“My plan was, with ten laps to go that I was going to aim for the podium, but with seven to go I realised I’d used too much front tyre, then with five to go the rear let go. It was a shame as we had the pace to be a bit further up, but we’d made a positive step for the ‘dry’ race two.

“We made a strong start to races two, running third, but then it was red flagged due to adverse weather.

“Everything was going quite well in the second part, while it was a bit drizzly, but as the weather got worse and the grip went down, we still had a few of the dry settings in the bike, and it made things very difficult for me, but its alright because we know how to fix it, so it’s nice to get the points on the board.

“We’ve moved in to the top six positions which is nice after two weekends, so it wasn’t a brilliant weekend, but it wasn’t a bad one. The team’s been absolutely brilliant, everyone’s worked really well together, the bikes been faultless all weekend”.

Iddon now heads to Le Mans, in France, where he will compete in a 24hr race with TYCO BMW teammate Michael Laverty. Then the BSB series heads for Iddon’s ‘home’ round of Oulton Park, in Cheshire, on the 5-7 May.